


Gods and Millennials

by red_flag



Series: The Old Guard Clexa AUs [2]
Category: The 100 (TV), The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: (?), Alternate Universe - Ancient Greece, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Because of Reasons, F/F, Immortal Clarke Griffin, The Old Guard AU, i have no idea how to tag this, immortal lexa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-13
Updated: 2020-08-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:15:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,457
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25878787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/red_flag/pseuds/red_flag
Summary: “I am praying Thanatos will take a few more centuries before he comes for one of us”.Clarke snorted and laughed and it had been millennials ever since Lexa talked about her old Gods. “If the bitch comes only for one of us, I am hunting him down”.
Relationships: Clarke Griffin/Lexa
Series: The Old Guard Clexa AUs [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1877899
Comments: 9
Kudos: 128





	Gods and Millennials

**Author's Note:**

> I have no idea what this title is...

**I**

They first met sometime in Greece, under the shadow of Athena’s statue. Clarke spotted her first, from her place on the foot of a pillar, her fingers stilling around the sharpened thin charcoal she used to sketch the enormous statue in front of her. She watched her walk among the mortals with an aura of command and intelligence, too forward for this world or its people.

She was absolutely the most breathtaking creature Clarke had seen in her long life.

The woman –this mortal so very worthy of worship– wore a long red dress that let her curved back uncovered, the thin silk fabric falling away to show the line of her spine, black tattoos of multiple circles –Clarke would later count seven of them– covering her sun kissed smooth skin. Long brunette hair fell as light curls down her shoulders and down her muscled back. A sculptured jawline, high cheekbones, a nicely curved nose.

Centuries later, Clarke would still swear she could be the only possible real evidence that these gods existed because there was a strong chance of her being made by some goddess.

Clarke would be damned if she didn’t try to speak to her at least once. She had lived a very long time and she was sure she would continue to do so and this mortal was something she’d love to have in her memories. Humanity always had a way to steal her breath but this woman –this woman was probably one of the biggest wonders existing in this time period and Clarke would be fucking _damned_ if she did not speak to her at least _once_.

“Good morning”, she whispered as she came to stand a foot away from this creature under the shadow of the statue in front of them. Clarke let some distance between them, both to not spook this woman and keep her own mind somehow clear in its wonder.

Greek still sat heavy on her tongue, her Roman accent adapting slower than Clarke would have liked. Her worry of mispronouncing the new language was erased from her mind when green met her blue orbs. This woman’s eyes were as green as those gorgeous emerald stones Clarke had found forty seven years ago and then tied in a necklace to sell to some Queen in the North countries. Clarke still used those golden coins.

“May I have your name?”

The green eyes looked her up and down and something in Clarke’s chest flattered and cracked. Her lungs didn’t work properly and she wondered if this woman would exchange some of her time and patience for a painting and Clarke’s attention. Clarke found herself sending a prayer to these Gods she didn't believe in.

“Alexandra”.

Clarke felt her mouth parting at the sound of her voice and she pressed the heels of her boots in the tiles underneath her feet just to feel the steadiness of the earth.

“I am Clarke”.

“A peculiar name”.

Clarke could only nod, feeling her vocal cords unable to work.

“I am a painter and I would like… I mean… If you accept, I would like to…”

Figures; so many centuries in this world and her words would still stick in her throat at the sight of something of such beauty.

“Paint me?” Alexandra asked, lifted an eyebrow and honest-to-Aphrodite smirked at her with mischief and a hint of curiosity.

“Yes”, Clarke answered and it was breathless and broken and awed.

The smirk widened and softened and the green eyes searched Clarke’s face for a very long time. A wave of cool air was blown by some God in a good mood, making a long strand of brunette hair fall away from the delicate braids and gently frame the young woman’s face.

“I will decline your offer this time, Clarke”, she said and Clarke felt a slice in her heart at the polite rejection. However, she nodded and the light in Alexandra’s eyes changed as she closely looked at Clarke. “You can ask me again, may we meet again that is”.

Clarke couldn’t help but smile at that. “May we meet again then”.

**II**

They didn’t exactly meet again.

Clarke was the one who found her three years later.

She hadn’t expected to see the emerald green eyes again, not in her dreams at least, but, here she was, shooting up from a previously peaceful sleep, gasping as phantom pain that wasn’t hers flashed right through her gut. Clarke groaned and sat up on the bed, looking around the room of the hut she owned in the fields outside the walls of the city.

She got dressed with shocked pained eyes in her mind, put on her worn out hunting boots thinking of a knife being dropped on the floor, slid on her wide soft pants as she felt throbbing somewhere deep in her stomach. The image of a bold man with a priest’s robes and odd tattoos on his head passed by and Clarke shuddered as she packed a sack with her weapons.

The sun hadn’t risen just yet and Athens was still asleep in the fainting darkness. She ran through alleys and narrow streets, her old boots slipping over the smooth tiles, a wave of images of another life flashing by her mind. She saw the woman she had not been able to forget, Clarke saw the breathtaking eyes and smile, heard her beautiful voice echo in her mind as she ran up a hill and a wide staircase, passing the markets and the busy streets to the richer part of the city.

Clarke passed the house just as its image flashed in her mind and she stumbled, blue eyes finding an opened door. A thin line of yellow flickering light spilled on the ground, leading her inside.

Alexandra was on the floor, a pool of her blood growing around her torso and Clarke dropped on her knees next to her, useless hands hovering over a healing stab wound and worried eyes falling on the knife thrown on the carpet. Her thoughts span as she tried to find an explanation of what had happened.

The woman gasped deeply on the floor, gaining Clarke’s whole attention. Her hands rushed to soothe out the wide panic in the young woman’s eyes that snapped up to her own blue ones.

“Alexa…”

“Who are you? Who are you, I saw you in… I…”

“You are fine”, Clarke rushed to say, her eyes softening and her heart flattering. “You are going to be alright, yes? I know this is confusing but I promise you, you are going to be alright”.

“My father, he found out I don't... he…”

“Hey, let’s get you out first. They cannot find you here”.

Clarke had her fair share of dying and then waking up in front of mortals, who thought they should take it upon themselves to kill this undying creature. It did not end well for them but the first couple of times it had left her slightly unbalanced by the people’s determination to murder her. The woman in front of her didn’t need to go through the same thing.

“I was dead”, she mumbled, green eyes filling with tears and looking up at Clarke for an explanation, for a reason of what was happening. “I was dead and I saw you, the painter with the odd name, I… who are you?”

Clarke took her face in her hands and breathed in, because, even in her panic, this woman was beautiful and probably godsend. “I am like you. An immortal walking among the mortals, this is why you saw me, this is why you were dead and now you are once again breathing. I guess we are connected in a way”.

“Are you… Are you a goddess?”

Clarke couldn’t help but chuckle, making the panic deepen in the green eyes. “I am no goddess”. _But maybe you are_. “I just… I just live on”.

“I don’t understand”, she mumbled, green eyes closing for a second and strands of hair falling in front of her face. Clarke hesitated for one moment before reaching to push them back, her movements slow and gentle. “Clarke, I don’t understand”.

“I will explain everything”, she whispered and Alexandra looked at her with her wide green eyes and Clarke thought she’d happily spend eternity with this woman, if she’d have her. “But we need to get out of here for now”.

The other woman gulped and looked at the pool of her own blood and nodded and met Clarke’s blue eyes. “I trust you, Clarke”.

She smiled and her heart panged irregularly in her chest, something in her hardened soul softening at the words. She sent a thankful prayer to her own gods, the spirits of the earth and offered a hand to the woman. “Come on. You have a lot to learn”.

**III**

They fled Athens a few days later, fighting all the way to some boat that travelled to Egypt with a hold filled with wine barrels. They fought because Clarke had a sack full of blades and arrows and some worn out clothes and nothing else and she needed a few gold coins to get them both through the day's walk to the dock to get to the ship. The fought because Lexa almost had a stroke by the suggestion of stealing some gold from the treasures gifted to the various temples around the city.

Lexa, she had mumbled the nickname to Clarke with a broken mindless whisper and no further explanation for the time being, had shook her head with dangerous eyes, threatening she’d cut Clarke down if she even _dared_ to steal from the gods and have them both cursed. Clarke had rolled her eyes and told her she had been doing that ever since she came to Athens and Lexa seemed to have a second stroke at the clear disrespect Clarke seemed to hold for her twelve gods.

Truth was that Clarke had travelled many lands and had lived with many people, had met a lot of religions and gods and goddesses, all of them so different but so similar in their core. Clarke had lived many centuries before these gods were even born and her own prayers to the spirits of earth and wind and water and fire, were prayers of another lifetime and world but feeling far realer than these powerful creatures that were said they ruled over the universe.

Lexa had had seven total breakdowns later that night in that tight wooden room of the ship Clarke had managed to sneak them in without the coins, which had begged Clarke to steal them. The brunette woman was more comfortable with sneaking in boats and stealing the shipmen’s food and wine and gold rather than touching the gods’ gifts. Clarke though she would turn to be a good pirate later on.

So, Lexa had had seven total breakdowns.

One; her father had _accidently killed_ _her_ as they fought about her impolite rejection to some arranged marriage he had set Lexa up with a war general from Rhode.

Two; immortality was obviously a thing and Lexa needed some time and some wine to handle the information and her new reality.

Three; she fled her city with a strange blonde woman, who claimed to be older than Zeus and the rest of the Gods and had apparently lived ever since the people lived in clans and in the forests, more like wild animals rather than social beings.

Four; apparently, Lexa’s Gods weren’t the only Gods existing and she also needed some time and some wine to handle that.

Five; she was fleeing her city and her home with some woman with an odd story and name and beliefs and the most beautiful blue eyes Lexa had ever seen in her life.

Six; her father had _killed_ her and she needed a lot of time and a lot of damn wine to handle that because, Hell, Titus had _killed her_ and she didn’t die because she was immortal.

Seven; Clarke was the most breathtaking woman Lexa had seen in her life and she’d remembered the painter from that odd morning in front of the statue of Athena and she hadn’t forgotten of her in the three years that had passed since that morning.

The journey to Egypt was a three nights long journey and they’d ended up laughing and drunk off their asses since the second day in that dark hold of the rocking boat and Lexa had had seven much needed and logical breakdowns and Clarke had been very patient and soft with her that it was overwhelming.

A few hours before docking, Lexa woke up with arms wrapped around her, her head throbbing and dropped on Clarke’s chest and her ear pressed just above the woman's beating heart. Lexa had never felt so calm before then and in a way, she knew she’d be fine if she kept this woman by her side.

**IV**

They travelled the lands of men before they were officially given names, before they were separated with borders and walls and maps. Nothing tied them down to one place, to one time, to one people. They walked the lands across the great seas, the lands behind mountains, rivers and lakes, the lands through forests. Days, weeks, months, years, centuries, millennials; they all flew over them without touching their skin, their bodies, their minds, their souls.

They met cultures, they saw empires raise, they saw kingdoms turn to dust, they saw the centuries starting to be written down, they saw the times they had once lived turn into something cherished, the history turned in some kind of universal religion. They were a part of it; they walked right over and through the pages of the very thick books. In every key point in history, they managed to be there to witness it firsthand, to be a part of it to tilt it towards what they thought was the right direction.

Clarke laughed at the inaccurate parts, while Lexa rolled her eyes with frustration.

They learned languages, they were taught to fight by legendary people, who were never written down in books, who would never be leant by the next generations like others despite their role in humanity’s story. They had met scientists, poets, authors, painters, kings and queens, leaders and servants. They had lived a million lives in one very long lifetime.

A couple of centuries ago, under the clear night sky, listening to the water of Rhone moving, a few feet away from Vincent and the heavy aura that circled this man, Lexa had voiced her concern of them growing tired of the never ending life. She had voice her concern of them growing tired of the never ending suffering, tired of watching the people come and go, tired of watching everything moving around them and the two of them staying behind, not able to move with the world.

Clarke had nodded slowly and had turned her head to look at this woman next to her and she had sighed because Lexa always thrived among the people and Clarke loved this woman so much.

“As long as I live with you, I don’t think I will grow tired of it”.

Lexa turned on her side and met her eyes and Clarke sighed, her breath catching in her throat at the sight of her under the stars, in the soft glow of Arles’ lights.

“Sometimes I am afraid of waking up and finding you gone. I am afraid of living this eternity on my own”.

Clarke’s heart soared at the words and she slowly reached up to push back the loose strands of hair that fell in front of Lexa’s face.

“I will never willingly leave you, Lexa”.

“I know that. It makes this terror worse”.

Clarke pulled her down in a kiss and Lexa sighed against her lips, a few tears falling from her closed eyes. Mindlessly, Clarke wiped them away gently. They had both died uncountable times before but this fear wasn’t unknown. Clarke always felt a jolt of horror snap down her whole body when she thought of the possibility of Lexa’s lungs not taking in another breath.

“I am praying _Thanatos_ will take a few more centuries before he comes for one of us”.

Clarke snorted and laughed and it had been _millennials_ ever since Lexa talked about her old Gods. “If the bitch comes only for one of us, I am hunting him down”.

Lexa laughed against her lips and she kissed Clarke again under the beautiful starry night, laughing when their friend yelled at them to cut it out, throwing a dirty paint brush at them, the tip finding Lexa’s cheek and leaving a wobbly line of blue on her skin.

“I love you”, Clarke whispered in ancient Greek, lifting a shaky hand to wipe away the fresh blue paint, smearing it instead. It didn’t matter, like every color; blue also looked good on Lexa.

“I love you”, Lexa replied and kissed her palm, her green eyes wide and beautiful and bright.

**V**

“Lexa, dear, do not do this”, Clarke laughed as she watched the woman destiny had gifted her with considering her options on selling her old sword to this ruthless buyer that didn’t take no for an answer.

“I’m not selling the sword for only three hundred coins, Clarke, this is worth so much more”, Lexa replied in ancient Greek, the Indian man nearly snarling at the language he did not understand.

Clarke readjusted the strap of the sack over her shoulder, stepping closer to snake an arm around the woman’s waist. “We can find another shop”.

“He is said to be the best antique buyer in India”.

“He is a prick though”.

“Yes, I can see that”, Lexa snarled at the man, who growled as the conversation kept going in the unknown to him language. “I am not selling this for three hundred”.

Clarke laughed and took her hand, pulling to the door. “Let’s go then, we will find a museum that won’t want too much paperwork”.

“Clarke”, Lexa whined as she was dragged out in the street and under the burning sun. “We don’t have time to find a museum and I could have made a better deal”.

“He wasn’t backing down”.

Lexa frowned. “I wasn’t either”.

“And this was why we would miss the flight”, Clarke laughed, tangling her fingers with Lexa’s own, looking up at her lover rolling her eyes. “Come on, we need to sell the sword and get those tickets; the festival is tomorrow, Lexa”.

“I know, Clarke”.

“We missed it last year”.

“I know, Clarke”.

“I’m not missing it again”.

Lexa bit back a smile and pulled at her hand, hard enough to make her stumble back into her. They froze in the middle of the walking crowd of people and Clarke felt her breath leaving her lungs at the sight of this God-given woman. An eternity later and she was still so very helplessly awed by Lexa’s beauty.

“I promised we–“

They were slammed with harsh images of a young girl, their eyes losing sight of one another for a moment as flashes passed by in front of them; gunshots, screaming, a cry of help, an explosion and a sharp inhale of breath. Brown eyes of a fourteen year old girl stared back at them both, terror and pain and grief clouding them, sand and gravel on their mouth as the explosion shot them back and on the hard ground.

Clarke’s hand wrapped around Lexa’s forearm, blue eyes horrified and wide and Lexa blinked, looking down at her with confusion and fear. Their souls cried out with grief and the need to protect and their eyes met.

“Desert”.

“A lot of military”.

Lexa closed her eyes. “There was a flag; red, black, green, a white half-moon and a star in the middle on the black strip”.

“Libya?”

“Yeah”.

“Shit. There is a civil war happening there at the moment”.

“She was a little kid, Clarke, no older than fifteen”.

Clarke grabbed the case of the sword and turned to the antique shop. “We are going now”, she mumbled and pushed open the door, switching in his language right away as she stalked to the counter and the man, who looked absolutely terrified of her. “I am selling this to you for six hundred and no less and you will take it. We need to get to Libya today”.

He didn’t have any room to decline the offer.

Lexa met her gaze before she eyed the cash in Clarke’s hold when she came out of the shop. “Her name is Madi”.

Clarke nodded, her mind racing. “Let’s go find her”.

**Author's Note:**

> I am obsessed what can I say... I thought of this, sat down, wrote it in six hours, posted it right away. I haven't even checked for mistakes. I am useless being, please, bear with me. Listen to me though my love for this AU cannot be stopped by my inability to be a fuctional human so here you go with this, thank you for reading this mess. Someone better than me needs to sit down and write about 30,000 words of this, you guys, I need it, I NEED IT, I am willing to beg for it, give me the old guard clexa aus.
> 
> There is going to be some editing and stuff in the next few hours and days and weeks so yeah.
> 
> Also, Alexandra is a greek name so shush I know Alexandria is the usual thing of this fandom but shush you, thank you thank you.
> 
> Yes, they met Vincent Van Gogh. Yes, they were there when he painted Starry Night over Rhone. Let me live this is an AU I can do what I want.


End file.
